Conventionally, it is known that tourmaline is a silicate mineral having characteristics such as generating a permanent weak current, generating far infrared rays, and eluting minerals, and that these characteristics provide various useful benefits as shown below.
First, the tourmaline has a characteristic of permanently generating a weak current. The tourmaline is a polar crystal having a characteristic of holding an anode and a cathode naturally and permanently at respective ends of the crystal. This allows the anode of the tourmaline to have a characteristic of continuously and permanently generating a weak current of 0.06 milliamperes as follows: attracting and absorbing negative ions in the atmosphere; incorporating collected negative ions into the tourmaline; transmitting the negative ions to the cathode; and discharging remaining negative ions from the cathode. The characteristic of continuously and permanently generating the weak current provides a current collecting effect and a piezoelectric effect that are further enhanced by applying heat or pressure, thereby causing not only a large amount of static electricity to be generated, but also voltage to be increased. The tourmaline permanently forming an electric field as described above is generally called an “electric stone”.
The characteristics as described above allow the tourmaline to have ability not only to instantaneously convert water into negative ions when exposed to water, but also to change the water to being weakly alkaline at the same time. That is, electrons stored in the cathode of the tourmaline are instantaneously discharged when exposed to water, and are electrolyzed into hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions. The hydrogen ions combine with water molecules to continuously generate supplies having a surface-active effect called “pidroxyl ions”. These are negative ions. The water having passed through the processes as described above has a weak alkalinity showing PH 7.5 due to decrease in hydrogen ion.
Cooling circulating water in plants and the like contains chlorine, impurities, and the like, so that molecular activity is restricted and water molecules, each called H2O, are likely to become conjugates to exist as large clusters formed by causing many of the conjugates to gather, in many cases. When water with large clusters as described above is brought into contact with tourmaline, the clusters of the water are decomposed by voltage of the tourmaline. This causes the water to return to a normal molecular state to actively perform molecular activity, so that the water becomes “water with high permeability and water absorption, being smooth, and having a cleaning effect”. This is activation of water.
Second, the tourmaline has a characteristic of radiating far infrared rays. The tourmaline has a physical property of causing pyroelectric phenomenon (pyroelectricity) of electrostatic charge caused by heat. It is said that effect of the physical property is doubled as temperature rises by 2 degrees. The tourmaline also has a physical property of causing piezoelectric phenomenon (piezo electricity) of electrostatic charge caused by even a slight shock. This pyroelectric and piezoelectric energy is considered as far infrared rays. That is, when heat or pressure is applied to the tourmaline, it is converted to far infrared rays with a wavelength of 4 to 14 microns, and the far infrared rays are radiated.
Third, the tourmaline has a characteristic of eluting minerals into water. From the tourmaline, elements such as magnesium, iron, boron, and silicon, contained in the tourmaline itself, are eluted into the water. This enables the water to be mineralized by putting the tourmaline into the water.
As described above, the tourmaline has the characteristics to perform various functions such as: generating negative ions to instantaneously convert water molecules into negative ions; changing the water to being weakly alkaline; and activating the water; radiating far infrared rays to produce a surface-active effect, thereby eluting minerals into the water. As a result, specifically, using the tourmaline achieves efficacy such as prevention of metal corrosion, prevention of scale adhesion, improvement in water quality, softening scale in a cooling circulation pipe, softening corrosion, cleaning effect, and water mineralization. Thus, the tourmaline can be used and applied in the field of water treatment of cooling circulating water.
Unfortunately, the tourmaline generates a weak current and a small electric field, so that it is difficult to remarkably obtain the action and effect of the tourmaline as described above by only bringing the tourmaline into contact with water, or by only bringing the tourmaline in contact with water instantaneously or for a short time. In addition, the tourmaline is a mass of hard rock, so that its handling is limited to cause its usage to be difficult. As a result, it is difficult to obtain the useful action and effect of the tourmaline, so that practical usage of the tourmaline is not yet realized at present.
Conventionally, there is proposed a technique of producing tourmaline-treated water by bringing water into contact with tourmaline (e.g., refer to Patent Literature 1). This proposed technique is merely to immerse the tourmaline in water by placing it on the bottom of a bathtub, or to bring water flowing through a pipe into contact with a container filled with tourmaline. The method of instantaneously bringing water and tourmaline into contact with each other, or the method of simply bringing water into contact with the tourmaline placed in a stationary manner, as described above, does not enable a large amount of water to be treated by a weak current. In addition, to obtain the tourmaline-treated water having developed action and effect of the tourmaline to the extent that the effect can be perceived, a certain level of improvement and contrivance is required.